My first proposal *is there a place for this*

Hey all,

Well, I'm kinda trying to get a job doing a website for the local addictions services. The only thing is, I don't have any formal training so I don't really know what a proposal is. I checked the web and found a few things here and there but none were really useful. I tried google and got it right off the spot. This is what I THINK I have to do in order to get this job.

My Info:

This is where I put stuff like my history in Web Dev., my qualifications, skills, past works/achievements and my contact details.

Project Overview:

This is where I show my understanding of the project at hand, their target market and my goals of the website I'm proposing and how I will achieve them, like database driven, password protected areas etc...

Project Theme:

This is where I can show the style of the site I'm proposing, maybe a template or two(later), their current bradndings, logos, images etc... Also if you plan on making new/modified logos/images or whatever, mention them here.

Website Flowchart:

This is something I think I have done before. Story board: a small drawing of page and a small description of it. Each page should take a half sheet and a 1-3 line summary.

Flowchart Description:

This is a more detailed description or each page of the site. The summary on your story board should summarize this.

Development Timeline:

Well this is where web development get's social. here I think I list the stages I'll go through, preliminary (actual design), codding, testing etc... Also included is when it will be completely ready, which may include when a demo will be ready. Consultations with client and feedback from the client, demo perhaps. Also Milestone payments etc...demo, full site, happy customer. This is where you remind your client of the time required to generate internet traffic and business if the case suits it.

Costs (the big part)

This is where you need to get out your calculator and tell them how much $$$ they have to give you before you'll do it. You might want to consider the following in making up your prices...

Just make sure it doesn't COST YOU anything to develop this site FOR THEM. You are trying to make money aren't you?

-Domain Name Registration ($10 canadian is cheapest I can find)
-Hosting, unless you have a PC yuou can run as a server and a spare T1 line you will probably outsource here.
-Outsourcing, parts of the site you can't develop yourself.
-Electricity, even my batter backup that lasts long enough for me to shut down durring an electric storm doesn't charge for free!
-Other expenses, travel, lunch, communication(long distance)

I also found this useful information.

From what I can find development for large huge sites can costs upwards of US$100 an hour. Most common salaries are usualy in the US$25-US$75 range. This is all dependant on the complexity of the site, developers skills etc...

Other things to include:

-Terms and conditions, legal stuff, may need a lawyer or google to help you out here.
-Mock-ups, the (later) here you can show templates and images but not too much, you want them to pay for your site and now get someone cheaper to use your stuff, if they can do that, don't forget copyrights and stuff to avoid doing free work for someone else.
-Website maintenance, they might request you maintain it in whole or part. You can also offer to maintain it in whole or part.

As for proposals this is all I found. I think it's a complete document but I'm not sure. If you think I'm missing anything It'd be GREATLY appreciated. Prety much I just reworded stuff I found on comany sites that do this kind of thing and pieces of incompete tutorials and other places, my uncle mentioned the legal stuff to me, hes a buisness guy/financial advisor/lawyer.

Thanks for taking the time to read!
Wayne

Also include time for concept development, enviroments that you plan to use, (development & production), testing you mentioned, but make sure you include some user acceptance time. They will always change there mind about things, so make sure that the plans are clear at the beginning - give them a chance to change certain things after a certain amount of time, then have a code freeze. Allow time for code fixes too.
You may want to include some disaster recovery info too, eg: how you plan back-ups, up times etc...

Good luck.

Thanks! I wouldn't have thought of those important things to mention.

Here are some things I should probably have mentioned.

They requested backups on a regular basis. It's a non-profit organization, part of the health board. They already have several sites none of them with the same flow. They have a site that they said they like a lot and is their end goal...why not use that I asked myself but ah well, if you want to pay me for it. They want a unified site for shared services instead of individual sites for each area that uses these shared services.

So I know what they want, they have comments about each of the pages, their likes and dislikes. I just don't know how to out it to words on paper :S

The company has stated in their proposal request that they are developing a marketing strategy. I don't know how to market a site other than by using good meta tags. Is that all that's to it?

Here is the important question...
Does that mean all I have to do is make some meta tags for search engines and that's it?

Maybe I should ask them, would they know? Is that a "professional question"?

...ranty thingy do-hickey

Well I hope I get one of these jobs, I think I'm guaranteed one, I know them personally and I already built them their current site free of charge. The other has no competition but no request, just a useless local music store site. The major one which I'll make more than $1000 profit on has been posted in papers across two districts. I THINK my proposal looks professional enough. I used a tutorial and a sample proposal from LoBo designs. However it doesn't look exactly like either of them. The professional looks were "stolen" from LoBo designs, the rest I just made up as I went. It almost looks like I paid someone to do it! Almost! I've also proposed a site for my cousins company but he wansn't looking for a site when I first asked him. I think I'm going to put a proposal together for him too now that I know how to make one. Mwahahahahahahahahahaha super-nerd!!!!!!

You should look into Search Engine Optimiztation. There's more to it than just using meta tags.

Thanks!! I checked into it briefly and found a microsoft business site that had a few tips that I was, unknowingly, already following. Such things as RELATIVE title, meta tags and using them properly. Also using relative alt properties for my images helps. There was also a not to do list of things that just sounded like spam all of those sites you used to see that werer just spam.

Generally, good site design, through tutorials and information like w3c, includes good search engine optimization. I'm not sure I always use my alt phrases in the content of my page before. I normaly give a brief description of the image, usually less than 5 words. IE "Hey! It's me!" for a picture of me. I guess the me's would match...

Haha, searching for my current site, well trying, I found an old google cahce of a site that no longer exists that I built. ahahaha!!!

Maybe I should go back and take a peek at those tutorials and refrencecs before my deadline is due :P

Thanks for the help.